Watson-Nicklaus remains golf's last true rivalry

Even casual followers of the Grand Auld Game are aware of what began the Nicklaus-Palmer rivalry and what formed it for the next 15 years -- the powerful, young Nicklaus, this 22-year-old upstart from Ohio, resolutely challenging the King of Golf in the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 1962. When Nicklaus won in a playoff to make the Open his first professional win -- and on Palmer's home turf, no less -- it signaled the arrival of the greatest golfer in the history of the game and the beginning of the competitive eclipse of the most influential and popular player in the game's history.